Friday, October 07, 2005

A Texas Republican has introduced a refinery construction bill in the House of Representatives that would give incentives to the petroleum industry to develop more refining capacity. This bill also re-introduces a number of anti-environmental provisions that were dropped from the original "National Energy Strategy" that the Bush Administration finally pushed through last month, after 4 years of trying.

NY Times says the new legislation, "would give regions downwind of polluted areas more time to comply with national standards on ozone levels and would limit the government's ability to prosecute utilities or refineries if they make plant changes that increase their overall emissions of pollutants." NY Atty. Gen. Spitzer (and 8 other State AGs) say bluntly that it would, "eviscerate protections of the Clean Air Act."

Once again, the Republicans are trying to exploit a national tragedy (this time Hurricane Katrina) in a cynical move to line their own pockets. Everyone knows that the so-called National Energy "Strategy" last month was nothing but a bunch of giveaways to Republican corporate donors. And now that they have another chance to try to sneak it in, why not let them all off the hook for their pollution as well? I guess the Republicans figure that the hurricanes already made such good progress in destroying the environment on the Gulf Coast that we might as well finish the job.

The pretext for this insidious little bill is that the nation sorely needs to incentivize the petroleum industry in America to increase its refining capacity. What a load of crap! What more incentive does the petroleum industry need beyond $3.00/gallon?! Does throwing more money at the price-gougers really make sense to anyone except a Texas oilman? If they really want to help solve the energy crisis, how about giving us a bill that incentivizes the automotive industry and the public utilities to end their dependence on petroleum altogether!

9 comments:

This bill (H.R. 3893) just passed the house 212-210. The leadership had to hold the vote open for 40 minutes until they could persuade two Republicans to change their votes. All Democrats plus thirteen Republicans voted against it. This bill disgusts me to the core.

To buy some Presidential lip service for their neolithic social agenda, evangelical Christians have sold out our country to the corrupt corporate bosses of the Republican party. I guess the nomination of Ms. Harriet Miers is showing them just how little they got in return for their Faustian bargain.

Enough joking. This may open up Fort Ord on California's Central Coast for oil men. They want to build and oil refinery there on land that the Federal government was supposed to be handing over to local communities for affordable housing. Our congressman is fighting it. But I am not sure he has much influence. Furthermore, the Central Coast of California is NOT an industrial zone. It is a marine sanctuary. If they build a refinery, we may well have oil tankers pulling into the protected zones and way more heavy trucks on highways that are already less than adequate. So for me, the potential effects are evident. Another way for Texas to screw California. Listenin to Rising Gas Prices Could Mean New Refineries on the Californa Report from Thursaday, Oct 6, 2005. The bill strips local agencies from being able to regulate the location of refineries. So I am pissed.

I think this bill could end up really hurting the Republicans in 2006. It's so transparently a give away to people who are deeply unpopular that the Democrats won't even have to come up with much of an alternative. They'll just point at the Republicans and say, "They are robbing your pocket to make oil barons even richer!"